Kimi Ga Iru Kara
by Numbah 9
Summary: Chad always had special feelings for Cree, but is afraid she doesn't like him back. During a mission on Rainbow Monkey Island their faith in each other will be tested.
1. The mission

**A/N: Meh, it took a while, but now I'm finally a Cree/Chad fan. xD So yeah, I decided to write a fanfic about them. The title is Japanese, it means: "Because you're here". Hope you enjoy. Please R&R!**

**Disclaimer: Dun own anything, just this fic.

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**_Kimi Ga Iru Kara_**

He heard the sound of the bell enter his mind, and left the classroom in less than 5 seconds. There had been many afternoons he had spent by rushing outside school and waiting for her, hoping to at least receive a glance from her charming eyes. This day was no difference. Almost tripping off the stairs at the entrance Chad managed to regain his balance and landed on his feet. He turned around when he heard an amused chuckle behind him.

"Hi Chad," Cree answered his surprised glance.

"… Cree," he managed to get over his lips. He felt his cheeks turn slightly red, hoping she wouldn't see that. He felt ashamed, but at the same time disappointed. Were these small words all she could say? A greeting, and his name, as if she didn't know any other words to talk to him with. As if this was usual for her to do. But it was actually the first time she did. All the other times she just walked by without even noticing him. Had she never known he always used to wait for her here?

"You're here quite often, aren't you?"

… She had known.

"Yeah, so?" Chad tried to smile, but knew that his happy mood had gone all along.

"I know we're supposed to meet here, but I just don't understand why you're just standing at this place like a rock other times," Cree explained, still amused.

Her words reminded Chad of something he had totally forgotten. They were supposed to meet up at the entrance of school and then walk over to Father's Mansion. He had told them yesterday he'd need them for a special mission.

"… Let's just go," he grumbled, pulling his schoolbag on his back some more. "Father must be waiting for us."

"That's a lame excuse and you know that," Cree answered, but didn't continue about her question. She didn't even want to anymore when Chad didn't answer, let alone look at her. She wondered what's wrong with him.

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"You're late, my apprentices," a low voice welcomed them into a familiar room. It was dark and warm as always, but Chad felt so absentminded he rather thought it was chilly, for a change.

"But let's get to the point," Father added, walking closer to them from his chair.

Even though he felt warmer with every step Father took to get closer to him, Chad couldn't manage to realize that. He kept feeling the opposite, cold inside. Cold as ice, ice hard as stone. Just as hard as the way Cree had treated him 10 minutes ago._ I thought I was more to you than just your… teammate…_

Cree apparently didn't notice what was troubling him, if she noticed something was troubling him at all. She was looking at Father with some weird look in her eyes. She always used that look when she felt like fighting.

"We're ready for our mission, Father," she said.

"Just tell us what it is," Chad added hurried, hoping this wouldn't take too long. Cree may have hurt him in some weird way, but beating the Kids Next Door's butts could maybe crack him up.

"Patience, Chad," Father simply answered, looking at him. Chad noticed it was the first time he did since he'd entered this room. The rest of the time he had been looking at Cree, which he now continued to do.

"Listen up," Father started, more impatiently this time. "I suppose you remember I told about my Delightful Children, when they travelled to Rainbow Monkey Island to obtain the precious tablet for their contest. Those Kids Next Dorks tried to hold them off, saying they wanted to win the contest as well. But… I think there's more behind it."

"What do you think they're hiding, Father?" Cree immediately asked, looking at him interested. Too interested in Chad's opinion. Apparently she did notice his glance at her this time, and glanced back. "I'm just curious, that's all," she snapped when she saw his upset face. "What's the matter with you?"

"Nothing," Chad snarled back, shortly. If there was one thing he didn't want right now, it was a fight. At least not with her.

"Stop wrangling!" Father ordered them as flames of anger appeared around his dark body.

Chad could immediately feel the heat now, and looked away, wishing Father hadn't asked him to do whatever he wanted them to do.

"Now, as I was saying," Father continued, "the Kids Next Door wouldn't travel all the way to Rainbow Monkey Island for a stupid contest, even Global Command told them to. So my guess is that there's a hidden base they wanted to visit as well. Your mission," he pointed from Cree to Chad and back to Cree, "is to find this base and destroy it."

"Rest assured, Father," Cree answered not even 2 seconds after he was done. "We'll complete this mission successfully."

Chad started to get annoyed by her way of acting in front of Father, but felt the opposite when he looked at her face. It looked serious, convinced, faithful… and charming.

"That's good to hear," Father answered. He turned around and walked back to his chair. "Now leave, and don't come back before you've completed your mission."

"Yes, Father," Cree and Chad answered at the same time, exchanging looks for a few seconds.

Cree turned away from him and headed for the exit, while Chad was way behind and thinking about her eyes again. It'd been a long time since he saw her look at him like that. The last time she did was probably the time when she saved him from the Moonbase. He wished he could relive that moment again before he made his way to the door as well.

"One more thing, Chad," Father's voice caught his attention before he even got through the doorstep. Chad turned around and said: "Yes?"

Father was looking at him, difficultly. As if something serious was bothering him. It had to be really serious, since he didn't continue to speak.

Just when Chad was about to repeat himself Father finally answered: "Don't get too distracted."

"Distracted? By what?" Chad raised an eyebrow.

"By her."

Chad gulped and his eyes widened, as his cheeks got a pinkish colour. He decided not to say anything and turned around again, hurrying out of the room.

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**A/N: Hope you liked it. Next chapter will be up soon. 3 **


	2. The accident

**A/N: Thank you for your lovely reviews:D -loves them- Here's the next chapter, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Dun own anything, just this fic.**

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_Kimi Ga Iru Kara_

It took Chad longer to exit the mansion than he expected. He took the usual way to get outside, but Father's last words made him lock himself up inside his own thoughts so much he almost took the wrong way _and_ walked slower.

For some reason he was afraid of what Father had said. It was the tone he used. _'Don't get distracted by her.' _What was that supposed to mean? He didn't love her or anything, let alone have a crush on her. He… just liked her a bit more than other girls. Actually, she was the only girl he liked. So what? That old man was just jumping to conclusions.

"I don't love Cree," Chad repeated every 5 seconds, in attempt to convince himself. "I don't love her, I really don't. That's ridiculous. I don't love C--"

When he saw a sudden light in front of him he realized he was stepping outside the dark mansion, and quickly shut his mouth. He immediately noticed he shouldn't have done that much later, because Cree was standing just a bit away from him, transforming her bike into an aircraft. She sat down in it and looked at Chad. "You coming?"

"Yeah, sure," Chad answered, trying to sound casually. He walked over to his bike and did the same, but he didn't sit down yet or Cree talked again.

"I think something's wrong with my aircraft."

"What are you talking about?"

"It doesn't seem to start. Can you take a look at it?"

Chad sighed and stood, walking over to her aircraft. She stepped out of it to give him some space as he bent down and looked inside, at the controls. "I don't see anything wrong."

"It still won't start."

The stubborn tone in Cree's voice made him look up at her in surprise. "Well, I can't help it."

"I guess not, but that means I have to come with yours."

"What are you gonna do? Sit on the roof?" Chad chuckled at his own joke.

"No, I was sort of thinking about sitting beside you," Cree answered, almost tonelessly.

"… Sit beside me?" When Chad realized how much space there was in his aircraft he felt a slight blush appear on his cheeks. "But there's barely room for one person!"

"Then I think it's better if you sit on the roof." Cree smirked at him.

"No way, it's my aircraft!"

"Then I'll be sitting beside you, whether you like it or not. Unless you want me to sit in your lap instead."

Cree raised her eyebrows after what she said, waiting for an answer. Apparently she failed to notice Chad was lost in thought again, making her words truth there.

"… Chad?"

"Huh? Oh, right…!" Chad widened his eyes in attempt to get back to this planet, and had to bother reminding himself what's going on again. When he succeeded, he found nothing else to say but: "Fine."

He went back to his own aircraft and sat down, thinking about what just happened. _What the hell was that…? Am I out of my mind? Get those stupid thoughts of your mind, you don't even like her!_ Even though Chad's words sounded as convincing as possible, Chad himself knew the last thing was a lie. Because he did like her, just not… that way.

Knowing the blush on his cheeks hadn't disappeared he looked away as Cree went to sit next to him. Or at least tried to. Chad was right; the aircraft was way too small for one person in the first place. That's why Cree was forced to sit against him instead of beside him if she wanted to fit in. She turned her head to him when he barely even moved. "Are we gonna leave or what?"

Chad quickly turned his head back to her and repeated: "Oh, right," quickly making the aircraft lift off the ground. While flying away from Father's mansion he tried to think of anything but her, which was hard since her arm was pressed against his.

"Cree… Could you please earn me some space?"

"There's not enough room."

"I can't drive like this."

"Big baby. What's the matter with you? Of course you can."

Chad turned his face to hers and shouted in frustration: "Are you deaf? I told you I can't!"

He immediately regretted the next thing that happened: Cree's shocked and frowned face, staring back at him. Yet it didn't last long; she already recovered it.

"And I told you there's not enough room!" she snapped back, sounding half upset.

Failing to fully pay attention to where he was going Chad answered: "You want to crash or what?!"

"Stop overreacting! Rainbow Monkey Island isn't that far. If we crash, it's because you behaved like a complete dolt!"

"I told you, you should've sat on the roof! At least that'd prevent you from bothering me!"

"Bothering you? I'm sitting _next to you_, idiot! What's so bothering about that?"

"I don't understand why Father wanted you to go with me! I could've handled this mission alone!"

"It's because you're acting like a toddler! You can't handle a single thing without someone keeping an eye on you!"

"Like this is going to help!"

"You couldn't have escaped from the Moonbase without my help! Then you would've been decommissioned now!"

"Leave my past out of this!"

"You think mine is such joy? I'm in the same boat as you!"

"The hell you are! Would you just shut up and let me drive?!"

"You started this whole crap!"

"Then I'm going to finish it, now! End of discussion!"

Chad tried to focus on the way he was flying without caring if Cree would answer his final words, but immediately noticed why she didn't. Their fight had made them both lose their attention to the aircraft, which was about to crash down in the sea.

With a short gasp Chad started to pull handlebar in attempt to get up. He heard a splash underneath them and knew they had hit the water, but he refused to let themselves drown. Chad took a short glance outside and saw the water was rising around the aircraft. This wasn't working.

A sudden touch on his hands made his head shot back inside. Two hands were wrapped around his, pulling the handlebar with him. Then he glanced at Cree, who was looking back at him. "Come on, pull!"

Chad was about to say it was no use, but for some reason Cree's hands touching his own gave him some new kind of strength, which he used to do as she said.

They finally succeeded; the aircraft started to lift again and Chad saw the water was moving away from them. It worked.

As soon as they were above the sea again Chad managed to get control over the aircraft and slowly looked at Cree again. She looked back with a little smile. "Think you could use some help?" she imitated his voice.

Chad was so relieved they'd made it out of the vicious waves he had already forgotten about their fight. He softly thrust his elbow against her arm and said: "Quit it," sounding rather amused than annoyed.

She just smirked at him.

Looking back Chad focussed on her eyes again, which were no longer filled with anger or irritation. Again there was this charming look. It made him forget about his worries, just for that moment, because he suddenly caught some weird noise in his ears. "What was that?"

"We're going down again," Cree remarked, looking at the water, which was coming closer again. "You sure you want to drive?"

"It's not me, there's something wrong with my aircraft too!" Chad answered, a bit panicked.

"The water must have damaged it somehow," Cree said, looking at him again.

Chad didn't look back; getting more and more panic he desperately attempted to get the aircraft up again, but failed. "I can't get it up; we gotta get outta here!"

"How?" Cree asked.

"Need to ask? Our BRAs!" Chad pressed a button that made the glassed roof fold down, which immediately gave the wind chance to enter the aircraft.

Trying to keep her hair out of her face Cree answered: "Are you insane?" She needed to shout to overcome the sound of the wind.

"It's either this or drown! Once we get in the water there's no way we can escape!" Chad shouted back. He stood up, holding the edge of the ship with his hand not to get blown out, and yelled: "Armor on!" The order activated his BRA and he waited until it completely covered him.

Cree simply sighed and did the same, looking at Chad. He looked back and said: "We just jump and fly along to Rainbow Monkey Island, okay?"

"Are you sure it'll work?" Cree asked, both worried and unsure.

"I hope it will," Chad answered, no longer looking at her. Instead, he looked outside, watching the water approach them. "Let's go." He held out his hand.

Cree glanced at the water as well, noticing Chad was right. Those giant waves would make them unable to escape. She quickly looked back at him, and then noticed his hand. She bit her lip and looked at it for a few seconds before she actually took it.

As soon as Chad felt the touch of Cree's hand he pinched his eyes and bent down. Lifting himself up again he felt his feet lose touch of the floor and jumped out of the aircraft, holding Cree's hand tightly.

"Now's our chance! Fly!"

Chad himself didn't hesitate a moment and activated his jetboots, but when he noticed he was still falling he looked down, and saw Cree. She was just hanging there. "What's going on?"

"My jetboots, they're not working!"

"They're what?!"

Before either of them could even look at one another they fell down in the water.

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**A/N: Well, the moment when Cree imitated Chad's voice she was referring to the end of Op: END, in case you didn't know. ;) Please review!**


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